Tuloso-Midway ISD to consider bond election for new facilities and to fix mold problem

CORPUS CHRISTI - Tuloso-Midway ISD trustees will consider calling a bond election that could help clean up a high school mold problem and fund district upgrades, including a new baseball field, an early childhood classroom addition to the intermediate school and a performing arts center at the high school.

District officials told trustees Monday night during a work study meeting that a bond would need to be about $36 million to cover facility additions and upgrades, such as new air conditioning units at the less than decade-old primary and intermediate schools, Interim Superintendent Sue Nelson said.

At a meeting Aug. 29, trustees will discuss calling the bond.

The bond could also help resolve a situation of mold inside the walls of four upstairs and four downstairs high school classrooms that have moisture from rain that seeped into the walls and brick.

Many teachers told district officials that carpets and walls would get wet when it rained, and district officials in the spring called out engineers who determined walls in the eight classrooms contained mold, Nelson said. The classrooms were sealed off before school started in July, but the mold likely had been there for about five years and only recently discovered, she said.

"I will not be able to reopen them until we get funding — major — to do something to that building," she said.

Classes originally scheduled in that part of the high school were moved to a science wing that was added in 2006, which has extra classroom space, Nelson said. No one has reported getting sick as a result of the mold, she said.

With the bond, the district said an option to clear out the mold would be to tear out the mold-infested walls and build a new performing arts center in its place, she said.

"So we're kind of making lemonade out of lemons," Nelson said.

She emphasized the district's need for enhanced facilities because student enrollment is increasing and buildings are getting older.